The Charles Lahai Hoffman Engineering Scholarship Program

2017/2018 Hoffman Scholarship Students

NameGrade LevelGrade Average

MARBELINE MERCHANT 9th 94

FACIA SHERIFF 9th 86

ZOE HARRIS 7th 90

I have always had a desire and longing to help and give back to Liberia, and the people of Liberia, particularly following the protracted war that destroyed much of the infrastructure and social landscape of the country.

In 2008 I visited post war Liberia and saw firsthand the ruins of war-torn Liberia (my beloved country). Assessing the situation, I wondered what contributions I could make to help rebuild the country for the future. I began by reviewing my life and the many opportunities I had received growing up, like the technical training and after school drafting program at the Ministry of Public Works, which led to my career choice of Mechanical Engineering and training in Architecture and Interior Design. I decided to do something then: it was time to give back!

I started by paying the tuition for two of my neighbors’ (in Liberia) children. However gratifying this was, somehow it didn’t seem enough, surely I could do more. So for the next two years I wrestled with how to do more, meanwhile continuing my support of the neighbors’ kids and a relative.

In 2010, I attended for the first time, the Convention of the B. W. Harris Episcopal School Alumni Association-USA, Inc. held in Atlanta, Georgia. It was just the vehicle I needed to support more students in colloboration with my alma mata. The Charles Lahai Hoffman Engineering Scholarship Program was born! It’s main purpose and goal is to sponsor aspiring engineering students of all disciplines of engineering. At the next Convention held in 2011 in Providence, Rhode Island, my scholarship program was launched! It continues to grow each year and we are now going into our eighth year, making bigger plans and supporting more students.

My next goal is to build a complete physics and chemistry laboratory at B. H. Harris Episcopal High School, Monrovia, Liberia, which will enable the students to have a place to practice theories and engaged in the scientific experiments they are studying. I hope to achieve this by networking and garnering corporate and higher institutional support. Ultimately, I would like to expand the scholarship into their college careers.

With God’s help, I believe I can and will make a profound difference and impact the future development of Liberia’s infrastructural/structural and social landscape, one engineer at a time, born out of the“Post Civil War Generation”!